The American Soul
The American Soul
Liberty's True Source: Why America Rose While Others Failed
What does your schedule reveal about your spiritual priorities? In this thought-provoking episode, Jesse Cope confronts us with a challenging truth: the way we allocate our time speaks volumes about what we truly value, often contradicting what we claim to believe.
Through a careful examination of Matthew 11, we explore Jesus's gentle invitation to all who are weary and heavy-laden. There's something profoundly comforting about reaching the end of our own strength and wisdom, finally surrendering our problems to God when we've exhausted every human solution. As Jesse shares from personal experience: "I've tried everything... and then I get to the point where I look at God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and I go 'y'all got to figure this out.'" This moment of surrender, though born of desperation, brings unexpected peace when we recognize it's no longer on us.
The conversation takes a fascinating historical turn as we consider the unique foundations of American liberty. If other systems—whether religious or political—could have produced what America did, why didn't they when they held centuries of unchallenged power? The conclusion is compelling: "Liberty is produced in association with God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit." Our current national struggles, Jesse suggests, stem not from flawed founding principles but from abandoning them.
Perhaps most poignant are the reflections on how we treat those closest to us. Through examining early Christian martyrdom and the tragic history of believers persecuting one another, we're confronted with our own tendency to take for granted those relationships that should be most precious. The marriage relationship especially—meant to reflect Christ's relationship with the church—often receives our worst rather than our best.
Whether you're questioning your priorities, seeking spiritual rest, or interested in the connection between faith and freedom, this episode offers both challenging questions and comforting truths that will stay with you long after listening.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day you're in, sort of appreciate y'all giving me some of your time, a little piece of your day. I know you have other things pulling on you for your attention, so I'm grateful you're here. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to support the podcast, to share it with others, tell others about it. Thank you so much. I'm very, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. For those of y'all who come back day after day. Thank you Very, very grateful for that. And for those of y'all who are new. I'm glad you're here, hope you enjoy it, hope you get something out of it and hope you come back. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love, mercy, your grace, your forgiveness of our sins. Thank you for the time to record this podcast. Thank you for the people that listen to it, share it, the people that pray for me. Please be with their families. Be with them, father. Guide them all through the day. Bless the marriages of those who are married. Guide those who have children in raising them to know you. Help us to truly follow the commands of your Son, jesus Christ, to truly love him and therefore to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive us when we fail, father. Forgive us when we fall short. Help us to trust in you and know that you can and will bring our souls home safely to you. Be with our leaders here in America and in the nations around the world where people are listening. Give them wisdom and courage and strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you, father, and not in fear of none. Help us to all live our lives in fear of you, father, and following you, and not in fear of men and following the world. Help us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, not here on earth, and be with those, father, around the world who are hurting because they follow you and your son Jesus Christ In Syria, nigeria, so many other places, china, around the world, north Korea. Help us to help them, father, not just with words, but with actions, as much as we can, and please guide my words here, father, in your son's name we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray with him? And, if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Are they going to go to bed tonight knowing that they are your top priority besides God and Jesus Christ? How did you spend your time the last few days, folks? The last week, the last month, the last year, the last 10 years?
Speaker 1:Have you been giving yourself to other things besides God, but claiming that you follow God and Jesus Christ? I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been guilty of that. Claiming to be a Christian, right. If we claim to be a Christian, if we truly love Jesus Christ, then that means that our top two commands are to love God with everything we are our whole soul, heart, mind, body, strength and to love our neighbor as ourself. Right. And if we're married, our closest neighbor is who? Our spouse.
Speaker 1:How many times do I claim to follow Christ? And yet I put so many things. Social media Doesn't matter, whether it's TikTok or YouTube or Instagram or Facebook or X or Snapchat or anything else. Tv shows I could give you a laundry list of TV shows and movies that I like to watch. Sports I've said that on this podcast a number of times I'm a sucker for sports, right Workouts. I personally don't like to work out, but I know that some of y'all do Go for runs, some of y'all that train for half marathons and marathons and Ironman. You get the point, folks. How many times in your life do you claim to follow Christ and yet you put so many things in front of God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and in front of your spouse? We really need to look at how we spend our time each day.
Speaker 1:All right, we are going to get back into Matthew, chapter 11, I think. I hope, if I can find it, let's see. There's Matthew and there's chapter 11. John's questions when Jesus had finished giving instructions to his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John, while in prison, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him Are you the expected one or shall we look for someone else? Jesus answered and said to them Go and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he who does not take offense at me. Jesus' tribute to John.
Speaker 1:As these men were going away, jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. What did you go out into the wilderness? To see A reed shaken by the wind. But what did you go out to see A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings' palaces but what did you go out to see A prophet, yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet.
Speaker 1:This is the one about whom it is written Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you. Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you. Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, john himself is Elijah who was to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Speaker 1:But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to other children and say we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking and they say behold, wisdom is vindicated by her deeds, the Unrepenting Cities. Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles were done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, sorzen, woe to you, bethsaida, for if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you and you. Capernaum will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades, for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which had occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Come to me At that time.
Speaker 1:Jesus said I praise you, father, lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What a comfort. Those last three verses right. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That's just. That's a great comfort, folks, and I think, at least for me often, how these verses are executed in my life, as I get to the point where I just can't do anything else.
Speaker 1:I get to the point where I don't have any clue what to do. I don't. I've tried everything that I know what to do from a human point of view. I've tried to use all of my strength and intelligence, limited as it may be still and I've gotten to the point where none of it's worked. And I and I'm not talking about I've just tried once or twice, like I've tried as hard as I can, every possible way that I can, and Like I've tried as hard as I can, every possible way that I can, and it just hasn't worked. And then I get to the point. Sadly, it takes that long.
Speaker 1:Often I get to the point where I look at God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and I go y'all got to figure this out. I don't even know what to pray anymore. God, holy Spirit, you're going to have to talk and I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do, I don't know what to ask. And it's a desperate point, folks, but it's also a very comforting point, because it's not on you then anymore. Right, it's on God. What are you going to do, god? Because I don't know. I'll do whatever you tell me to, but you're going to have to tell me because I don't know. You tell me to but you're going to have to tell me because I don't know. At any rate, that's kind of how those verses work in my life or seem to the whole unrepenting cities thing. I think there's a lot here that we could focus on today, but I'm going to leave with this and we'll move on.
Speaker 1:But this verses 20 through 24, talking about right 24 at the end. Nevertheless, I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and the day of judgment than for you. There's two things about this that strike me. To me, the more important because we've kind of gone down a rabbit trail in the church today, maybe for a while is all people are not equally good and bad folks. All people equally need Jesus Christ. Nobody gets into heaven without Jesus Christ, nobody. It doesn't matter if we're a pope, priest, pastor, bishop, it doesn't matter if we're a plumber, electrician, garbageman, doctor, lawyer, teacher, father, mother, it doesn't matter. There's not a single person in the history, mary, joseph, the apostles nobody thief on the cross, nobody gets into heaven outside of Jesus Christ, nobody right. So in that sense we all equally need Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean that we're all equally good and bad. And you can see that from his comments here about the fact that some of these cities, if the miracles that had been done, that he was doing, had been done, and like Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented, they would have turned back to him. But these cities that he's here now the Son of God is here and he's doing these miracles and they're not repenting and it's going to be worse for them. It's going to be worse for them. It's going to be worse for them.
Speaker 1:And I think the second point that just kind of struck me this morning when I was reading this was how often do we assume everybody has had our life right and we look at other people and we go I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't act that way. How often do we fail to see that other people have not had our exact lives? Maybe we had a good set of parents and that person over there didn't. Maybe we had a parent that was sober all the time and that other person didn't. Maybe we grew up with a roof over our heads and food to eat every night and that other person didn't. Maybe you wouldn't be as good as you are today if you had grown up like that other person.
Speaker 1:Or maybe here's the really hard part, when I'm really being honest with myself. Maybe I'm not near as good as I should be, based on the blessings that God has given me in my life over the years, and maybe that other person there that I like to judge so much, who really is doing some pretty bad stuff. But maybe if they had been giving the blessings that I was given in my life, they would be much better than me and much more fruitful and effective for God and Jesus Christ than I am. Just some thoughts. We'll move on. So I don't I guess I do a monologue, sort of in some ways every day, but I had a comment that came to me the other morning when I was just driving around randomly, and I just want to share it, and then we really will move on to the next section.
Speaker 1:But ask yourself, as you look at the events in the world today I would argue, particularly in America for those of us who live here, but really in any country, wherever you are around the world listening today, world listening today. Uk would be another good example. Ask yourself this question If Catholicism or Islam or any of the bucket of ideologies right leftism, socialism, communism, fascism, nazism if any of them could have produced America and the subsequent liberty that America produced, why didn't they? They had more opportunity, they had better opportunity, they had total power in certain countries, not just for decades, but for centuries. In the case of Islam and Catholicism and for the other bucket of ideologies, they had absolute power in many places for decades in the 20th century. Look at China, look at the Soviet Union, look at North Korea just a number right.
Speaker 1:If they could have produced America, if they could have produced liberty, why didn't they? They had the opportunity, they had the means Way more than a small percentage group of patriots against the greatest army or one of the greatest military mights in the world at that time. They had way more opportunity and chance and potential for a positive outcome than our little band of pilgrims and founding fathers. So why didn't they? And the answer, of course, is that God produces liberty, not Catholicism, not the ideology right that doesn't produce liberty, not Islam that doesn't produce liberty. Not any of those. Socialism, communism, nazism, fascism not Islam, that doesn't produce liberty. Not any of those. Socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, leftism None of those produce liberty. Liberty is produced in association with God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. New Testament tells us that where the spirit of God is, there's liberty.
Speaker 1:And before some of y'all even talk about the fact that we're falling apart today, right, I've heard some people say well, obviously we didn't get it right because we're falling apart. So the revolution really wasn't that big a deal. It wasn't that great to begin with. We shouldn't have done it Whatever. That's not even remotely true. The problem isn't that we set it up wrong. The problem is we're executing wrong today.
Speaker 1:It's a simple solution. We're falling apart because we've stepped away from God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. That's the problem. We've gone away from our founding principles, we've gone away from the teachings of Christ. We've separated God from the state. We've gotten rid of and rejected his Holy Spirit to God. That's why we're in the mess we're in today. Just some thoughts, folks. Just some thoughts.
Speaker 1:So I'm really tempted to come back and read that same section in the book of martyrs again, but I won't. We'll move on. We'll come back and read it though, for sure, but we're going to start with chapter one, history of Christian martyrs, to the first general persecution under Nero. The history of the church may almost be said to be a history of the trials and sufferings of its members as experienced at the hands of wicked men of wicked men. At one time, persecution as waged against the friends of Christ was confined to those without. At another, schisms and divisions have arrayed brethren of the same name against each other, and scenes of cruelty and woe have been exhibited within the sanctuary, rivaling in horror the direst cruelties ever inflicted by pagan or barbarian fanaticism.
Speaker 1:This, however, instead of employing any defect in the gospel system which breathes peace and love, only portrays in darker colors the deep and universal depravity of the human heart. Pure and unsophisticated morality, especially when attempted to be inculcated on mankind as essential to their preserving an interest with their Creator, have constantly met with opposition. It was this which produced the premature death of John the Baptist. It was the cutting charge of adultery and incest which excited the resentment of Herodias. Adultery and incest which excited the resentment of Herodias, who never ceased to persecute him until she had accomplished his destruction. The same observation is equally applicable to the Jewish doctors in their treatment of our blessed Lord and Savior, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:In the sudden martyrdom of John the Baptist and the crucifixion of our Lord, the history of Christian martyrdom must be admitted to commence, and from these, as a basis for the subsequent occurrences, we may fairly trace the origin of that hostility which produced so lavish an effusion of Christian blood and led to so much slaughter in the progressive state of Christianity. As it is not our business to enlarge upon our Savior's history, either before or after his crucifixion, we shall only find it necessary to remind our readers of the discomfiture of the Jews by his subsequent resurrection, though one apostle had betrayed him, though another had denied him under the solemn sanction of an oath, and though the rest had forsaken him. Unless we may accept the disciple who was known under the high priest, the history of the resurrection gave a new direction to all their hearts and, after the mission of the Holy Spirit, imparted new confidence to their minds. The powers with which they were endued emboldened them to proclaim his name to the confusion of the Jewish rulers and the astonishment of Gentile proselytes.
Speaker 1:1. Saint Stephen. Saint Stephen suffered in the next in order. His death was occasioned by the faithful manner in which he preached the gospel to betrayers and murderers of Christ To such a degree of madness were they excited that they cast him out of the city and stoned him to death. The time when he suffered is generally supposed to have been at the Passover which succeeded to that of our Lord's crucifixion and to the area of his ascension in the following spring. Upon this, a great persecution was raised against all who professed their belief in Christ as the Messiah or as a prophet. We are immediately told by St Luke that there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and that they were all scattered abroad, throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles, with Nicanor. One of the seven deacons suffered martyrdom during the persecution which arose about Stephen.
Speaker 1:2. James the Great. The next martyr we meet with, according to St Luke in the history of the Apostles' Acts, was James, the son of Zebedee, the elder brother of John and a relative of our Lord, for his mother, salome, was cousin German to the Virgin Mary. It was not until ten years after the death of Stephen that the second martyrdom took place, for no sooner had Herod Agrippa been appointed governor of Judea than with a view to I don't know what. Those two words, it's hard to read something himself. With them he raised a sharp persecution against the Christians and determined to make an effectual blow by striking at their leaders. An effectual blow by striking at their leaders. The account given us by an eminent primitive writer, clemens Alexandrinus, ought not to be overlooked, that as James was led to the place of martyrdom, his accuser was brought to repent of his conduct by the apostle's extraordinary courage and undauntedness and fell down at his feet to request his pardon, professing himself a Christian and resolving that James should not receive the crown of martyrdom alone. Hence they were both beheaded at the same time. Thus did the first apostolic martyr cheerfully and resolutely receive that cup which he had told our Savior he was ready to drink. Timon and Arnius suffered martyrdom at about the same time, the one in Philippi and the other in Macedonia. These events took place around AD 44. Events took place around AD 44.
Speaker 1:A few things, if I can find my place here. I think one of the sad things back in this first little chapter, one part Schisms and divisions have arrayed brethren of the same name against each other and scenes of cruelty and woe have been exhibited within the sanctuary, rivaling in horror the directest cruelties ever inflicted by pagan or barbarian fanaticism. You look at the war, for example, in Ireland between Catholics and Protestants. You look at a number of different persecutions, theoretically inside the church folks. Why, why do we, why are we so cruel to each other when we all claim to follow Christ? It's a tragedy.
Speaker 1:I don't necessarily have the answer. Perhaps the answer is that we're not really following Christ if we're so willing to persecute brothers and sisters and a lot of it goes back to any denomination folks that tells you that theirs is the only one, that theirs is the one through denomination, anybody that's telling you that, any doctrine that's telling you that they're lying. It's not in scripture. You won't find it anywhere. You can't find it. All you have to do is ask and if the person's really interested in the truth, if they really want the truth, they'll look it up and see that.
Speaker 1:But the bottom line is how often are we so cruel to the people that we're supposed to be the most loving toward? Think about just your own family right. Think about your marriage. That's supposed to be the most holy, special, important relationship of any human being outside of their relationship with God and Jesus Christ way above anything else, above phones or sports or TV, or parents or kids or friends or sisters or brothers. That relationship is supposed to embody the relationship between Christ and the church. And yet how often are we the cruelest, the most indifferent, the most lukewarm, the most uncaring to that person? We put them last instead of first. Uncaring to that person, we put them last instead of first. We just demean them and treat them as if they're just trash. And how often do we do that? You see, inside the church we're supposed to be followers of Christ and yet how often do you hear gossip and slander about other people inside the church? Just reading that, that's what jumped out at me and you know.
Speaker 1:This next sentence. This, however, instead of implying any defect in the gospel system which breathes peace and love, only portrays in darker colors the deep and universal depravity of the human heart. The heart is deceitful. Above all else. Folks, don't trust your heart, trust God, trust Scripture and do be doers of the word. Right, that's what we're supposed to do Not just merely be hearers, but doers, and that's why it's so important to focus on actions as opposed to feelings.
Speaker 1:You can make that argument particularly again for marriage, this paragraph though one apostle had betrayed him, another had denied him under the solemn sanction of an oath, the rest had forsaken him, except maybe the disciple who was known to the high priest, but even there he didn't go with him into and say, hey, I'm with this guy, so whatever you do to him, you got to do to me right. And then, after his resurrection, gave new direction to all their hearts after the mission of the Holy Spirit, and pardoned new confidence in their minds. That's comforting Anytime you feel like you failed Christ and I feel that way. A lot, I'm assuming quite a few of y'all do too and we do fail him often. Right, none of us are perfect. Take the example of the apostles, not as a chance to point fingers at them, but as a chance to be comforted by they knew Jesus, they'd been with him for years and they abandoned him Even when they swore that they wouldn't.
Speaker 1:There's nothing you can do, folks. There's nothing that you can do, folks. There's nothing that you can do that will ever separate you from the love of Jesus Christ. Minus your own choice to reject him and the Holy Spirit and God, there's nothing we can do. Whatever you've done in your life if you will turn to God, seek forgiveness, repent of it, acknowledge him as your Lord and Savior, acknowledge him as the only risen son of God. That's it. That's it. And just keep striving. Folks, that's the other thing. Every time you fall down, pick yourself up Right, pick yourself up and keep on going. He knows we're going to fall. He'll be there. I'm telling myself as much as y'all right now, because I struggle with this so much. Folks Struggle with this so much, okay. Folks struggle with this so much, okay. So I think we're going to move on from there for the day. Remember Stephen, remember James, some of the other names that we went through today in that book of martyrs.
Speaker 1:So, medal of Honor winners today we're going to start with Bruce Anderson, us Civil War Private Kilo Company 142nd New York Infantry, us Army. January 15, 1865, us Army, january 15, 1865, place of action Fort Fisher, north Carolina. Voluntarily the citation is one sentence voluntarily, advanced with the head of the column and cut down the palisading. Accredited to Albany, albany County, new York, not awarded posthumously. December 28, 1914 was the presentation date. Born June 1845, mexico City, mexico. Died August 22, 1922, albany, new York, United States. Buried in Green Hill Cemetery, amsterdam, new York, united States, bruce Anderson as a private, charles W Anderson, also known as George, before P-F-O-R-R ranked Private US Civil War 1st, new York, lincoln, calvary, us Army.
Speaker 1:March 2, 1865, waynesboro, virginia, again a one-sentence citation, capture of unknown Confederate flag Accredited to near Winchester, frederick County, virginia, not awarded, posthumously Presented March 26, 1865. He was born March 15, 1844, baltimore, maryland, united States. Died February 25, 1916, stanton, virginia. Buried in Thorn Rose Cemetery, PM 10-57M, stanton, virginia, united States. From the archives, charles W Anderson's legal name was George before he had deserted the Confederate army, so he used an alias while he enlisted in the U S army. Wow, crazy. Just another couple of names, folks Bruce Anderson, charles W Anderson, both from the Civil War, names that we ought to remember a lot more, as we say each day. The names are statistics of professional athletes, singers, actresses, actors, politicians, on and on and on.
Speaker 1:So a couple of quotes, a few quotes actually, from today. Frederick Douglass, from today, frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was a former slave who became an abolitionist and so many people were turned against slavery because of his speech, his talking. This is part of a story that he told, retelling his conversion to Christianity. I loved all mankind, slaveholder, not accepted though I have bored slavery more than ever. I saw the world in a new light. I gathered scattered pages of the Bible from the filthy street gutters and washed and dried them that, in moments of leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them.
Speaker 1:In 1845, in the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, chapter 2, every tone of the song of the slaves was the testimony against slavery and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. And then one more. Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be saved. When you try and keep a group of people down simply because they're part of a specific class or skin color or anything else, folks, it's never going to work out well. We don't seem to have learned this lesson very well still in the United States today, sadly. And when you make a group of people, men or women, with brown skin, black skin, white skin, red skin, whatever it is, if they came from Asia or Africa or Europe or South America or North America or Australia, if you make a group of people feel that there's some conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them. Douglas is telling us here neither persons nor property will be safe. You cannot have rule of law in that situation.
Speaker 1:I want to go back real quick to his quote here about his conversion. Right, I gathered scattered pages of the Bible from the filthy street gutters and washed and dried them that in moments of leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them. How many of us you know where I'm going already, don't you? Sure you do. How many of us would take the time to collect pages of the Bible from the gutters in the street and watch and try them so that we could read them in our downtime, hoping just to gain a little bit of wisdom?
Speaker 1:What are you doing today, folks? What are you doing today, folks? Do you have to go out into a street gutter in rags, filthy rags, to try and gather some pages of the Bible to read? Are you like the pilgrims in that generation that had to hide from the church for fear of being burned alive at the stake? Right, their parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents sake. Right, their parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents. What are you facing today and I'm not saying you're not facing heartache. Folks, right, that's another.
Speaker 1:That last little quote of his about the slaves and the songs a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. Pray to God. Whatever heartache and problems you're going today, pray to him. I think that the point I'm trying to make here, folks, is do we turn to him? Are we desperately seeking God each day and his solution and his answer, and trusting in him? And what's going to happen? I'm not folks. I'm not going out into the street gutters to collect pages of the Bible. I'm not a slave. I'm not being shot at right Because I believe in Jesus Christ. Maybe that time is coming. I hope God will give me the strength to survive it, if so, and run the race all the way to the end. But are you really? What are you doing to this that's so much more important than God? And if you're married, then your spouse. One more Going to go back to Mrs Warren, mercy Otis Warren.
Speaker 1:History of the Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution. Pick up where we left off in Volume 1, chapter 1. Virginia, indeed, had been earlier discovered by Sir Walter Riley and a few men left there by him, to whom additions, under various adventurers, were afterwards made, but by a series of misfortunes and misconduct, the plantation had fallen into such disorder and distress that the enterprise was abandoned. The fate of those left there by this great and good man has never been known with certainty. It is probable that most of them were murdered by the savages, and the remnant, if any there were, became incorporated with the barbarous nation. When somebody this year and we'll talk about Christopher Columbus again, like we do each year but when somebody tells you that the native tribes here were all gentle and calm and singing kumbaya, and they had this utopian society and just wanted to love everybody, don't buy it for a second. It's not to say that the those that came from europe weren't cruel in their own way, but the idea that the natives, that the indigenous people, were somehow the standard for virtue is an absolute fabrication and lie.
Speaker 1:There was afterwards a more successful effort for the settlement of a colony in Virginia In the beginning of the 17th century. Lord Delaware was appointed governor and with him a considerable number of immigrants arrived from England, but his health was not equal to a residence in a rude and uncultivated wilderness. He soon returned to his native country but left his son with Thomas Gates and several other enterprising gentlemen who pursued the project of an establishment in Virginia and began to build a town on James River in the year 1606. Thus was that state entitled to the prescriptive term of the Old Dominion, which it still retains. But their difficulties, misfortunes and disappointments long prevented any permanent constitution or stable government, and they scarcely deserved the appellation of a regular colony until a considerable time after the settlement in Plymouth in 1620.
Speaker 1:After the settlement in Plymouth in 1620. The discovery of the New World had opened a wide field of enterprise and several other previous attempts had been made by Europeans to obtain settlements therein. Yet little of a permanent nature was effected until the patience and perseverance of the laden sufferers laid the foundation of social order. This small company of settlers, after wandering some time on the frozen shore, fixed themselves at the bottom of Massachusetts Bay. Though dispirited by innumerable discouraging circumstances, they immediately entered into engagements with each other to form themselves into a regular society and drew up a covenant by which they bound themselves to submit to order and subordination. Their jurisprudence was marked with wisdom and dignity, and their simplicity and piety were displayed equally in the regulation of their police, the nature of their contracts and the punctuality of observance.
Speaker 1:The old Plymouth colony remained for some time a distinct government. They chose their own magistrates, independent of all foreign control. But a few years involved them with the Massachusetts, of which Boston, more recently settled than Plymouth, was the capital. From the local situation of a country separated by an ocean of a thousand leagues from the parent state and surrounded by a world of savages, an immediate compact with the King of Great Britain was thought necessary. Thus, a charter was early granted, stipulating on the part of the Crown that the Massachusetts should have a legislative body within itself, composed of three branches and subject to no control except his Majesty's, negative, within a limited term, to any laws formed by their assembly that might be thought to militate with the general interest of the realm of england. The governor was appointed by the crown, the representative body annually chosen by the people and the council elected by the representatives from the people at large.
Speaker 1:Though more liberal charters were granted to some of the colonies which, after the first settlement at Plymouth, rapidly spread over the face of this new discovered country, yet modes of government nearly similar to that of Massachusetts were established in most of them, except Maryland and Pennsylvania, which were under the direction of particular proprietors, but the corrupt principles which had been fashionable in the voluptuous and bigoted courts of the stewards soon followed the immigrants in their distant retreat and interrupted the establishments of their civil police which, it may be observed, were a mixture of Jewish theocracy, monarch government and the growing principles of republicanism which had taken root in Britain as early as the days of Elizabeth. It soon appeared that there was a strong party in England who wished to govern the columns with a rigorous hand. They discovered their inclinations by repeated attempts to procure a revision an the young settlements gave a pretext to some severities from the parent state. But the conduct of the first planters of the American colonies has been held up by some ingenious writers in too ludicrous a light. Yet while we admire their persevering and self-denying virtues, we must acknowledge that the illiberality and weakness of some of their municipal regulations has cast a shade over the memory of men whose errors arose more from the fashion of the times and the dangers which threaten them from every side than from any deficiency either in the head or the heart. But the treatment of the Quakers in the Massachusetts can never be justified either by the principles of policy or humanity, however censorable the early settlers in New England were in their severities towards the Quakers and other non-conformists, they might think their conduct in some degree sanctioned by the example of their parent state and the rigors exercised in other parts of the European world at the time against all denominations which differed from the religious establishments of government. The demeanor of these people was indeed, in many instances not only ridiculous but disorderly and atrocious. Yet an indelible stain will be left on the names of those who are judged to imprisonment, confiscation and death, a sect made considerable only by opposition. That last part there is pretty condemning folks. Even if the Quaker, as she was saying, even if the demeanor of these people was in many instances not only ridiculous but disorderly and atrocious, there's still a stain left on the names of those who agreed to go along with imprisonment, confiscation and death and made this sect, this denomination, considerable only because they opposed it right?
Speaker 1:How often do you see that in history, where you oppose something by force, try and stamp it out? Right? You look at this book of the martyrs. I mean, christianity is the premier example following Christ. How many people, all the way back to the Pharisees and Sadducees, tried to stamp out followers of Christ and all it does is make it spread more? And you have to kind of rely on truth and trust that God's got it all in hand, right? He's going to take care of it. At any rate, we'll pick back up again. Yeah, god be with y'all folks. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages If you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking bless your marriages If you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to you all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.